I bartended at "Talkin to a Stranger" on Wednesday night. Lisa Fitzgibbon, a folk singer from Australia who has performed with Ani DiFranco and is quite captivating on stage performed that night and there was a good crowd. Between sets a group of kids in KORSANG danced and rapped.
I've been living in Phnom Penh since January 24th and I plan to be here a few more months. This is how the story started for so many westerners who have now been in Phnom Penh for years. Its true, I love the city a little more every day. Now I even have a fondness for the grotesque, phallic Independence monument in the park near my house. I love scooting around on the back of a motorbike and I'm hoping to rent my own soon. I've met people that I really enjoy. I have some routines. Sarah and I run in the park every morning. We go to the market and get fresh produce for dinner. Every afternoon I buy an ice coffee with condensed milk in a bag. We start Khmer lessons next week with a guy named Rawling that Sarah met volunteering with Open Book. This city is complex. A horrific past, but such hopeful people. A lot of people from outside are here to help but a lot of people are here exploiting the need.
I'm volunteering now with two organizations. I am working with Jeanine and Billy's Children's foundation on their home-based care project for families affected by HIV/AIDS. Last week I visited a family of 8 in the Toul Kork slums. In the midst of the gaudiest mansions owned by Cambodian ministers are tin and tarp shacks. I took notes on the family that receives aid each month-their names, income, other organizations helping, ages, gender, school report cards, number of kids who are positive. The files I put together will be used for potential donors.
Today was my first day visiting KORSANG (www.korsangkhmer.org). I met the founder, Holly, at Talkin to a Stranger two weeks ago. I told her that I just finished university and that I'm thinking of nursing school when i get back to the states. She told me about the doctor in her drop-in clinic and said I should come in and check it out. Listening to her talk about her organization I was very impressed.
This local, grassroots organization started in 2004 and now has funding up until 2016through USAID, WHO, and UNICEF. Korsang was developed in light of the HIV pandemic in Cambodia and the reality of limited services to those at the greatest risk for HIV and other drug related risks. Korsang delivers risk reduction education, case management and health related services to injection drug users, sex workers and incarcerated persons. The staff of Korsang, about 30, were granted "permanent status" in the United States as refugees from the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s and 80s. Following an agreement in June 2002 between the US and Cambodia, they were handcuffed, shackled and deported back to Cambodia. Most left behind partners and children. They have now been trained in harm reduction philosophy. Harm reduction, sometimes known as risk reduction, is an addiction-care philosophy based on working with users in a compassionate, respectful and non-judgmental way, thereby building solid relationships that can become the basis of further treatment. Harm reduction works to minimize the negative effects of risky behaviors, rather than eliminate them, and recognizes the impacts of issues like poverty, racism, social isolation and past trauma on people.For example, rather than try to persuade users to stop injecting heroin, harm reduction workers might help a person reduce their intake gradually, teach them about safe injecting techniques and suggest services that might stabilize their lives.
Mr. T lived in Denver, North Carolina for many years and he still has one son there who should be 17 or 18. He showed me around KORSANG, introduced me to people. Three men were asleep in the rest area. They come in to rest during the day because they spend the night in the street. There is an area for them to shower. A TV was playing a bad American movie and many Injection Drug Users (IDUs) were doped up watching the television, in and out of sleep. I hoped on the back of Mr. T's motorbike and he was friendly and chatty. He wanted to know why the hell I was in Phnom Penh and he wanted to make sure I understood who he was and what Korsang was doing. He seemed surprised a young goody goody American white girl would want to work with injection drug users. We went through the heroin street and he pointed out all of the dirty needles in the grass alongside of the dirt road. I saw about 5 groups of one or two men asleep in the dust, needles dangling from their veins. One was awake and distracted by our passing moto, he lifted his eyes just enough to catch our dust as he shot heroin into his groin.
After the tour I met Vannda, the doctor. While I was there he treated one addict with an infection on his neck and another who might have to go to the hospital for TB. Just before I left a drug user, Srey Mal, who was trained last week to save people from overdosing, brought in a young guy who had overdosed on opium. Srey Mal gets a stipend for bringing in those who overdose and this was the first life she has saved. Her legs are the size of my arms, but she carried in this guy. I don't know how old she is. Maybe shes 16. They treat street kids as young as 8 with drug problems. Maybe, by making Srey Mal an active agent in change, and showing her another option, she'll recover. Many recovered young drug addicts are now apart of KORMIX, another part of Korsang that trains kids in break dancing and rap. They are pictured above, performing at Talkin' to a Stranger.
I'm going out tomorrow with some of the staff on outreach. They warned me to wear tennis shoes.
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